FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT OPRAH WINFREY - PAGE 5

A tear-jerking Mitch Albom bestseller as the source material, the Oprah Winfrey seal of approval and Michael Imperioli in his first role since The Sopranos, starring opposite Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn: With all this going for it, a less-than-crowd-pleasing film seems unthinkable. For One More Day just goes to prove nothing can be taken for granted. The first TV movie ABC has presented in more than a year is as cumbersome as the full title commanded by the brand names involved: Oprah Winfrey Presents: Mitch Albom's For One More Day. Imperioli and Burstyn have some terrific scenes.

The inside of the Amarillo Little Theatre has probably never seen so many pastels: seafoam green curtains, aqua flooring, violet walls. It's possibly never seen so many bouquets of roses: from the Quarter Horse Association, the Advanced Skin Treatment Center and Naomi, whoever she is. It's definitely never seen Oprah Winfrey, Patrick Swayze and Clint Black, let alone "all in the same evening!" This is what Oprah Winfrey has done to Amarillo: Turned a significant chunk of its usually reserved population into star-struck celebrity hounds.

Oprah Winfrey took a fan up on her offer and made a surprise visit to Natchitoches, Louisiana's oldest town. Peggy Plunkett was in the audience at a taping of The Oprah Winfrey Show two weeks ago when she stood up and said: "Oprah, everybody in Natchitoches loves you. You should come and visit," according to Winfrey. Winfrey arrived unannounced Friday afternoon. She had lunch at a local restaurant, joined Northwestern State University's homecoming parade and spoke at a pep rally for the school's sports program.

Oprah Winfrey may have given 152 girls in South Africa a brighter future, but she also sparked some senseless carping back home regarding her decision to build a state-of-the-art school for girls abroad. Why, goes the criticism, did the billionaire TV talk-show mogul go overseas to build a $40 million facility when there are plenty of public schools in the U.S. that could benefit from Oprah's largesse? "I became so frustrated with visiting inner-city schools [in the U.S.] that I just stopped going," Winfrey told Newsweek.

Picture this -- Burt Reynolds` face on someone else`s body. That is exactly what could appear on a proposed promotional brochure for the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts to be built in West Palm Beach. Plans are to feature a picture of the 54-year-old actor`s face atop the lithe physique of the theater`s spokesman. "We had a picture of Burt, but he didn`t have on a tuxedo. It wasn`t a question of body," said Marcia Webb, who heads fund-raising for the proposed $51 million theater.

MEMO TO BILL CLINTON: Dear Mr. Ex-President: Don't do it. Please. You know what I'm talking about. News reports say that you have been talking to NBC about hosting your own talk show. You reportedly want $50 million a year and aspire to be "the next Oprah Winfrey," according to a source quoted by the Los Angeles Times. Sir, I know Oprah Winfrey. Oprah Winfrey is a hero of mine. Mr. Ex-President, you're no Oprah Winfrey. However, you do have to a frightening degree the fundamental ingredients of daytime TV talk-show hosts: A gift for gab, an engaging personality and a relentlessly insatiable appetite for public attention.

"We're looking at scripts. After what's gone on in the world recently, you realize how important it is to spend time with the ones you love the most." -- Michael Douglas telling the Chicago Sun-Times that he and his father, Kirk Douglas, would like to make a movie together. "For years, no one has been regularly recording these wonderful American patriotic songs. Now, everyone wants to hear them again. The last complete set of popular patriotic selections recorded was done by me. It's been around for years and nobody seemed interested until now."

Celebrity lists are designed to stir controversy and conversation and get the list-maker some publicity. On this count, Forbes annual ranking of the 100 most powerful celebrities is a success. But at what expense to a magazine that strives to be taken seriously in every other area? Angelina Jolie more influential than Oprah Winfrey, as Forbes says? On what planet? Surely not Earth. Oprah just got a black man elected president. Without her intercession during the primaries, we would likely be calling Hillary Clinton Madame President.

Here's something you don't often see: Barbara Walters taking seconds behind another TV interviewer. This is what's going to happen starting Nov. 17. Walters will do a five-part interview for Good Morning America with former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin--the day AFTER Oprah Winfrey gets the recently resigned Alaska governor. Even Walters must recognize that as celebratred as she is, Oprah outranks her. Palin is hitting the circuit to promote her book, Going Rogue: An American Life, which has a release date of Nov. 17. The mainstream media might not have much use for Palin politically but they are savvy enough to recognize that she has extraordinary drawing power and November is a sweeps month.